Chapter LV: Appendix: XIII (2)

Connected with this Russophilia was an interest in and acceptance of Russian political views and, to a lesser extent, Communist ideology. Less obvious to his fellows generally,[A13-398] it nevertheless led him into serious discussions with some of them. Donovan, who was a graduate of the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University,[A13-399] thought Oswald was “truly interested in international affairs”[A13-400] and “very well versed, at least on the superficial facts of a given foreign situation.”[A13-401] He recalled that Oswald had a particular interest in Latin America[A13-402] and had a good deal of information about Cuba in particular.[A13-403] Oswald expressed sympathy for Castro but, according to Donovan, “what he said about Castro was not an unpopular belief at that time.”[A13-404] Donovan believed that Oswald subscribed to the Russian newspaper--which Donovan thought was a Communist newspaper--not only in order to read Russian but also because he thought it “presented a very different and perhaps equally just side of the international affairs in comparison with the United States newspapers.”[A13-405] Donovan was clear, on the other hand, that he never heard Oswald “in any way, shape or form confess that he was a Communist, or that he ever thought about being a Communist.”[A13-406]

Private Kerry Thornley described himself as a close acquaintance, but not a good friend, of Oswald, whom he met in the spring of 1959;[A13-407] he later wrote an unpublished novel in which he drew heavily on his impressions of Oswald.[A13-408] Thornley generally corroborates Donovan’s testimony but thought Oswald definitely believed that “the Marxist morality was the most rational morality to follow” and communism, “the best system in the world.”[A13-409] Thornley thought this belief was “theoretical,” a “dispassionate appraisal” which did not indicate “any active commitment to the Communist ends”; he described Oswald as “idle in his admiration for communism.”[A13-410] He recalled discussions about Marxism in which Oswald criticized capitalism and praised the Soviet economic system.[A13-411] Thornley testified that his association with Oswald ended when, in response to Oswald’s criticism of a parade in which they both had to march, he said “Well, comes the revolution you will change all that.” Oswald, he said, looked at him “like a betrayed Caesar” and walked away.[A13-412] Thornley attributed Oswald’s decision to go to Russia to a growing disillusionment with the United States, especially its role in the Far East, and a conviction that communism would eventually prevail.[A13-413] He was surprised by the decision but expected Oswald to adjust to Russian life and remain in Russia permanently.[A13-414]

Another marine, Nelson Delgado, met Oswald soon after the latter arrived at El Toro.[A13-415] They were about the same age and had similar interests; Oswald enjoyed trying to speak Spanish with Delgado, who spoke it fluently.[A13-416] Delgado regarded him as a “complete believer that our way of government was not quite right,” but did not think he was a Communist.[A13-417] Their discussions were concerned more with Cuba than Russia.[A13-418] They both favored the Castro government and talked--“dreaming,” Delgado said--about joining the Cuban Army or Government and perhaps leading expeditions to other Caribbean islands to “free them too.”[A13-419] Oswald told Delgado that he was in touch with Cuban diplomatic officials in this country; which Delgado at first took to be “one of his * * * lies,”[A13-420] but later believed.[A13-421]

Oswald’s interest in Russia and developing ideological attachment to theoretical communism apparently dominated his stay at El Toro. He was still withdrawn from most of his fellows, although his special interests appear to have made him stand out more there than he had at other posts and to have given him a source for conversation which he had hitherto lacked.[A13-422] According to several of the witnesses, names like “Ozzie Rabbit” still clung to him;[A13-423] others recalled no nickname or only shortened versions of his real name.[A13-424] His reading acquired direction; books like “Das Kapital” and Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984” are mentioned in the testimony concerning this period.[A13-425] He played chess;[A13-426] according to one of his opponents he chose the red pieces, expressing a preference for the “Red Army.”[A13-427] He listened to classical music.[A13-428] For a short time, he played on the squadron football team.[A13-429] According to Donovan, who coached the team, Oswald was not very good; he lacked team spirit and often tried to call the plays, which was not his job.[A13-430] Delgado thought Oswald was a mediocre player.[A13-431] Donovan did not know whether Oswald quit or was thrown off the team.[A13-432] He spent most of his weekends alone, as he had at Keesler, and did not leave the post as often as the other men.[A13-433] Delgado once rode with him on the train to Los Angeles but separated from him there; Oswald returned to the base after one night.[A13-434] Delgado recalls that on another weekend Oswald accepted his invitation to go to Tijuana: they stayed there for one night.[A13-435]

At the end of January 1959 and at the end of July, Oswald was given his semiannual ratings, scoring 4.0 in conduct both times, and 4.0 and 4.2 in proficiency.[A13-436] (The July ratings were repeated in September, when he was transferred from MACS-9 in preparation for his discharge.)[A13-437] On March 9, he was promoted as of March 1, to the rank of private, first class, for the second time.[A13-438] He took a series of high school level general educational development tests on March 23 and received an overall rating of “satisfactory.” His best scores, in the 76th and 79th U.S. percentiles, were in English composition and physical sciences; his worst was English literature, in which he placed in the 34th percentile.[A13-439]

In the spring, Oswald applied to Albert Schweitzer College in Churwalden, Switzerland, for admission to the spring term in 1960; the application is dated March 19.[A13-440] Schweitzer is a small school, which specializes in courses in religion, ethics, science, and literature. He claimed a proficiency in Russian equal to 1 year of schooling[A13-441] and that he had completed high school by correspondence with an average grade of 85 percent.[A13-442] He listed philosophy, psychology, ideology, football, baseball, tennis and stamp-collecting as special interests, and writing short stories “on contemporary American life” as his vocational interest.[A13-443] Jack London, Charles Darwin, and Norman Vincent Peale were listed as favorite authors.[A13-444] He claimed membership in the YMCA and the “A.Y.H. Association,” and said that he had participated in a “student body movement in school” for the control of juvenile delinquency.[A13-445] Asked to give a general statement of his reasons for wanting to attend the college, he wrote:

In order to aquire a fuller understanding of that subject which
interest me most, Philosophy. To meet with Europeans who can
broaden my scope of understanding. To receive formal Education
by Instructers of high standing and character. To broaden my
knowlege of German and to live in a healty climate and Good
moral atmosphere.[A13-446]

On the basis of these representations, Oswald’s application was approved by the college.[A13-447] He enclosed a registration fee of $25 in a letter dated June 19, in which he said that he was “looking forward to a fine stay.”[A13-448] Few of the other marines seem to have known about this application. He told Delgado, however, that he planned to attend a Swiss school to study psychology, and Delgado knew that some application had been made.[A13-449] Another marine, Richard Call, also knew something of his plans.[A13-450]

Oswald was obligated to serve on active duty until December 7, 1959 (the date having been adjusted to compensate for the period of confinement),[A13-451] On August 17, he submitted a request for a dependency discharge, on the ground that his mother needed his support.[A13-452] The request was accompanied by an affidavit of Mrs. Oswald and corroborating affidavits from an attorney, a doctor, and two friends, attesting that she had been injured at work in December 1958, and was unable to support herself.[A13-453] Oswald had previously made a voluntary allotment of part of his salary to his mother, under which arrangement she received $40 in August, and had submitted an application for a “Q” allotment (dependency allowance) in her behalf of $91.30; one payment of the “Q” allotment, for the month of August, was made in September.[A13-454] On August 28, the Wing Hardship or Dependency Discharge Board recommended that Oswald’s request for a discharge be approved;[A13-455] approval followed shortly.[A13-456] On September 4, he was transferred from MACS-9 to the H. & H. Squadron,[A13-457] and on September 11, he was released from active duty and transferred to the Marine Corps Reserve, in which he was expected to serve until December 8, 1962.[A13-458] He was assigned to the Marine Air Reserve Training Command at the Naval Air Station in Glenview, Ill.[A13-459]

Almost exactly 1 year later, on September 13, 1960, Oswald was given an “undesirable discharge” from the Marine Corps Reserve,[A13-460] based on:

reliable information which indicated that he had renounced his
U.S. citizenship with the intentions of becoming a permanent
citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Further,
that petitioner brought discredit to the Marine Corps through
adverse newspaper publicity, which was generated by the
foregoing action, and had thereby, in the opinion of his
commanding officer, proved himself unfit for retention in the
naval service.[A13-461]

SOVIET UNION

On September 4, the day on which he was transferred out of MACS-9 in preparation for his discharge, Oswald had applied for a passport at the Superior Court of Santa Ana, Calif. His application stated that he planned to leave the United States on September 21 to attend the Albert Schweitzer College and the University of Turku in Finland, and to travel in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, and Russia.[A13-462] The passport was routinely issued 6 days later.[A13-463]

Oswald went directly home after his discharge, and arrived in Fort Worth by September 14.[A13-464] He told his mother that he intended to get a job on a ship or possibly in the “export-import business.”[A13-465] If he stayed in Fort Worth, he said, he would be able to earn only about $30 per week; on a ship, he would earn “big money” and be able to send substantial amounts home.[A13-466] Three days after he arrived in Fort Worth, he left for New Orleans.[A13-467] While he was in Fort Worth he had registered his dependency discharge and entry into the Marine Reserve at the Fort Worth Selective Service Board,[A13-468] and visited his brother Robert and his family.[A13-469] He also gave his mother $100.[A13-470]

On September 17, Oswald spoke with a representative of Travel Consultants, Inc., a New Orleans travel bureau; he filled out a “Passenger Immigration Questionnaire,” on which he gave his occupation as “shipping export agent” and said that he would be abroad for 2 months on a pleasure trip. He booked passage from New Orleans to Le Havre, France, on a freighter, the SS _Marion Lykes_, scheduled to sail on September 18, for which he paid $220.75.[A13-471] On the evening of September 17, he registered at the Liberty Hotel.[A13-472]

The _Marion Lykes_ did not sail until the early morning of September 20.[A13-473] Before its departure, Oswald wrote his mother a letter, which was her last news of him until she read stories of his defection in Fort Worth newspapers:

Dear Mother:

Well, I have booked passage on a ship to Europe, I would of
had to sooner or later and I think it’s best I go now. Just
remember above all else that my values are very different from
Robert’s or your’s. It is difficult to tell you how I feel,
Just remember this is what I must do. I did not tell you about
my plans because you could hardly be expected to understand.

I did not see aunt Lilian while I was here. I will write again
as soon as I land.

Lee[A13-474]

The _Marion Lykes_ carried only four passengers.[A13-475] Oswald shared his cabin with Billy Joe Lord, a young man who had just graduated from high school and was going to France to continue his education. Lord testified that he and Oswald did not discuss politics but did have a few amicable religious arguments, in which Oswald defended atheism. Oswald was “standoffish,” but told Lord generally about his background, mentioning that his mother worked in a drugstore in Fort Worth and that he was bitter about the low wages which she received. He told Lord that he intended to travel in Europe and possibly to attend school in Sweden or Switzerland if he had sufficient funds.[A13-476] The other two passengers were Lt. Col. and Mrs. George B. Church, Jr., who also found Oswald unfriendly and had little contact with him. Oswald told them that he had not liked the Marine Corps and that he planned to study in Switzerland; they observed some “bitterness” about his mother’s difficulties, but did not discuss this with him. No one on board suspected that he intended to defect to Russia.[A13-477]

Oswald disembarked at Le Havre on October 8. He left for England that same day, and arrived on October 9.[A13-478] He told English customs officials in Southampton that he had $700 and planned to remain in the United Kingdom for 1 week before proceeding to a school in Switzerland. But on the same day, he flew to Helsinki, Finland, where he registered at the Torni Hotel; on the following day, he moved to the Klaus Kurki Hotel.[A13-479]

Oswald probably applied for a visa at the Russian consulate on October 12, his first business day in Helsinki.[A13-480] The visa was issued on October 14. It was valid until October 20 and permitted him to take one trip of not more than 6 days to the Soviet Union.[A13-481] He also purchased 10 Soviet “tourist vouchers” which cost $30 apiece.[A13-482] He left Helsinki by train on the following day, crossed the Finnish-Russian border at Vainikkala, and arrived in Moscow on October 16.[A13-483]

He was met at the Moscow railroad station by a representative of “Intourist,” the state tourist agency, and taken to the Hotel Berlin, where he registered as a student.[A13-484] On the same day he met the Intourist guide assigned to him during his stay in Russia, a young woman named Rima Shirokova. They went sightseeing the next day. Almost immediately he told her that he wanted to leave the United States and become a citizen of the Soviet Union. According to Oswald’s “Historic Diary,” she later told him that she had reported his statement to Intourist headquarters, which in turn had notified the “Passport and Visa Office” (probably the Visa and Registration Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the MVD[A13-485]). She was instructed to help Oswald prepare a letter to the Supreme Soviet requesting that he be granted citizenship. Oswald mailed such a letter that same day.[A13-486] (The “Historic Diary” is Oswald’s handwritten account of his life in Russia.[A13-487] The earlier entries were written after the events which they describe; later, in Minsk, he probably kept a contemporaneous record of his experiences.[A13-488] The Commission has used the diary, which Oswald may have written with future readers in mind, only as Oswald’s record of his private life and personal impressions as he sought to present them and has relied wherever possible on official documents, correspondence, and the testimony of witnesses.)

The diary records that when Oswald told Rima Shirokova that he intended to defect she was “flabbergassted,” but agreeed to help.[A13-489] She was “politly sympathetic but uneasy” when he told her that he wanted to defect because he was “a Communist, ect.”[A13-490] As an Intourist guide, Rima toured parts of Moscow with Oswald in the next few days. His primary concern, however, appeared to be his effort to become a Soviet citizen, and she also aided him in his dealings with the Soviet Government.[A13-491] He thought that Rima felt sorry for him and tried to be a friend because he was “someth. new.”[A13-492] On his 20th birthday, 2 days after he arrived in Russia, she gave him Dostoevski’s “The Idiot,”[A13-493] in which she had written: “Dear Lee, Great congratulations! Let all your dreams come true! 18.X 1959”[A13-494]

On October 19, Oswald was probably interviewed in his hotel room by a man named Lev Setyayev, who said that he was a reporter for Radio Moscow seeking statements from American tourists about their impressions of Moscow,[A13-495] but who was probably also acting for the KGB.[A13-496] Two years later, Oswald told officials at the American Embassy that he had made a few routine comments to Setyayev of no political significance. The interview with Setyayev may, however, have been the occasion for an attempt by the KGB, in accordance with regular practice, to assess Oswald or even to elicit compromising statements from him; the interview was apparently never broadcast.[A13-497] (As discussed in ch. VI of this report, the Commission is aware that many of the Soviet officials with whom Oswald came into contact were employees of the KGB, the agency which has primary jurisdiction for the treatment of defectors.)

On the following day, Rima Shirokova told him that the “Pass. and Visa Dept.” wanted to see him,[A13-498] and on the morning of October 21, he was interviewed by an official concerning his application for citizenship. The official offered little information and no encouragement; he told Oswald only that he would check to see if the visa could be extended. Oswald returned to the Hotel Berlin.[A13-499] That afternoon, he was notified that his visa had expired and that he had to leave Moscow within 2 hours.[A13-500]

Oswald responded to the unfavorable decision by cutting himself above his left wrist, in an apparent suicide attempt. Rima Shirokova found him unconscious in his hotel room and had him taken to the Botkinskaya Hospital. His diary states: “Poor Rimmea stays by my side as interrpator (my Russian is still very bad) far into the night, I tell her ‘Go home’ (my mood is bad) but she stays, she is ‘my friend.’”[A13-501]

For 3 days Oswald was confined in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. He was examined by a psychiatrist, who concluded that he was not dangerous to other people and could be transferred to the “somatic” department. Hospital records containing the results of the examination[A13-502] state that Oswald came to Russia in order to apply for citizenship, and that “in order to postpone his departure he inflicted the injury upon himself.”[A13-503] They note that Oswald understood some Russian and, presumably based on information which he provided, that he had “graduated from a technical high school in radio technology and radio electronics.”[A13-504] The record states: “He claims he regrets his action. After recovering he intends to return to his homeland.”[A13-505]

Oswald resented being in the psychiatric ward and told Rima Shirokova that he wanted a transfer.[A13-506] She visited him at the hospital frequently and his diary records that “only at this moment” did he “notice [that] she is preety.”[A13-507] Another entry for the hospital period says: “Afternoon I am visited by Roza Agafonova of the hotel tourist office, who askes about my health, very beautiful, excelant Eng., very merry and kind, she makes me very glad to be alive.”[A13-508] These entries reflect an attitude gentler and friendlier than his attitude before the suicide attempt, when he seemed to be coldly concerned only with his status in Russia. Once Oswald was out of the psychiatric ward, he found the hospital more pleasant. The new ward, which he shared with 11 other patients, was “airy,” and the food was good. His only complaint, according to his diary, was that an “elderly American” patient was distrustful of him because he had not registered at the American Embassy and because he was evasive about the reasons for his presence in Moscow and confinement in the hospital.[A13-509]

He was released from the hospital on October 28,[A13-510] and, accompanied by Rima Shirokova, was driven to the Hotel Berlin in an Intourist car. After he said goodby to Lyudmila Dmitrieva, head of the Intourist office at the Berlin, and to Roza Agafonova, another Intourist employee at the hotel, he checked out of the Berlin and registered at the Metropole,[A13-511] a large hotel under the same administration as the Berlin.[A13-512] The Government had undoubtedly directed him to make the change. His visa had expired while he was in the hospital, and his presence in Russia was technically illegal; he had received no word that the decision that he must leave had been reversed. Later that day, however, Rima told him that the “Pass and Registration Office” wished to talk to him about his future.[A13-513] According to the diary, when Oswald appeared at the office he was asked whether he still wanted to become a Soviet citizen and he replied that he did; he provided his Marine Corps discharge papers for identification. He was told that he could not expect a decision soon, and was dismissed. During this interview, Oswald was apparently questioned about the interview which preceded his hospitalization, which led him to conclude that there had been no communication between the two sets of officials.[A13-514] That evening he met Rima, on whom he vented his frustration at being put off by the authorities.[A13-515]

Oswald ate only once on the following day; he stayed near the telephone, fully dressed and ready to leave immediately if he were summoned. He remained in his room for 3 days, which seemed to him “like three years,”[A13-516] until October 31, when he decided to act. He met Rima Shirokova at noon and told her that he was impatient, but did not say what he planned to do; she cautioned him to stay in his room “and eat well.”[A13-517] She left him after a short while and, a few minutes later, he took a taxi to the American Embassy, where he asked to see the consul. (See Commission Exhibits Nos. 24, 912, 913, pp. 264, 263, 261.) When the receptionist asked him first to sign the tourist register, he laid his passport on the desk and said that he had come to “dissolve his American citizenship.” Richard E. Snyder, the Second Secretary and senior consular official,[A13-518] was summoned, and he invited Oswald into his office.[A13-519]

Oswald’s meeting with Snyder, at which Snyder’s assistant, John A. McVickar, was also present, is more fully discussed in appendix XV to the Commission’s report. Oswald declared that he wanted to renounce his American citizenship; he denounced the United States and praised the Government of the Soviet Union. Over Oswald’s objections, Snyder sought to learn something of Oswald’s motives and background and to forestall immediate action. Oswald told him that he had already offered to tell a Soviet official what he had learned as a radar operator in the Marines. The interview ended when Snyder told Oswald that he could renounce his citizenship on the following Monday, 2 days later, if he would appear personally to do so. During the interview, Oswald handed to Snyder a note[A13-520] which suggests that he had studied and sought to comply with section 349 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provides for loss of American citizenship.[A13-521] The note contains paragraphs which read like inartistic attempts to cast off citizenship in three of the ways specified by the statute. The attempts failed but there is no reason to doubt that they were sincere. Snyder has testified that he believed that Oswald would immediately have formally renounced his citizenship had he been permitted to do so.[A13-522]

The interview lasted for less than an hour. Oswald returned to his hotel angry about the delay but “elated” by the “showdown” and sure that he would be permitted to remain after his “sign of * * * faith” in the Russians.[A13-523] Soon after he returned to the hotel, he was approached by A. I. Goldberg, a reporter for the Associated Press, whom the Embassy had told about Oswald’s actions. Oswald refused to speak to him.[A13-524] He answered a few questions for two other reporters, R. J. Korengold and Miss Aline Mosby, but again refused to be interviewed.[A13-525] Thereafter, the news services made repeated unsuccessful attempts to interview him, which he thought was an indirect form of pressure from the Embassy to return to the United States.[A13-526]

On the day after Oswald’s meeting with Snyder, his family read in the newspapers about his appearance at the Embassy and tried to contact him. Mrs. Oswald testified that she was shocked at her son’s decision to defect but respected his motives for doing so; later she suspected that he had been forcibly removed to Russia.[A13-527] She placed a telephone call to him,[A13-528] but he either refused to speak to her[A13-529] or cut her off very quickly.[A13-530] So too, on November 2, he rejected the Embassy’s efforts to deliver or read on the telephone a telegram from his brother Robert.[A13-531] A call from Robert was either canceled before it was completed or was refused.[A13-532] Robert’s telegram, along with a message asking Oswald to contact him immediately, which Robert had asked the State Department to deliver,[A13-533] was finally sent to Oswald from the Embassy by registered mail.[A13-534]

A few days later, the Embassy received a letter from Oswald dated November 3 which requested that his citizenship be revoked.[A13-535] The letter stated that he had appeared at the Embassy “for the purpose of signing the formal papers to this effect” and protested against the “conduct of the official” who had refused him “this legal right.” Oswald noted that his application for Soviet citizenship was pending and said that if it were granted he would ask the Soviet Government “to lodge a formal protest” on his behalf.[A13-536] The Embassy replied on November 9 that Oswald could renounce his citizenship by appearing at the Embassy and executing the necessary papers.[A13-537]

Oswald’s diary describes the period from November 2 to November 15, during which he continued to isolate himself, as “days of utter loneliness.”[A13-538] On November 8, he wrote to his brother:

Dear Robert

Well, what shall we talk about, the weather perhaps? Certainly
you do not wish me to speak of my decision to remain in the
Soviet Union and apply for citizenship here, since I’m afraid
you would not be able to comprehend my my reasons. You really
dont know anything about me. Do you know for instance that I
have waited to do this for well over a year, do you know that
I * * * [phrase in Russian] speak a fair amount of Russian
which I have been studing for many months.

I have been told that I will not _have_ to leave the Soviet
Union if I do not care to. this than is my decision. I will not
leave this country, the Soviet Union, under any conditions, I
will never return to the United States which is a country I
hate.

Someday, perhaps soon, and than again perhaps in a few years,
I will become a citizen of the Soviet Union, but it is a very
legal process, _in any event_, I will not have to leave the
Soviet Union and I will never * * * [word missing].

I recived your telegram and was glad to hear from you, only one
word bothered me, the word “mistake.” I assume you mean that
I have made a “mistake” it is not for you to tell me that you
cannot understand my reasons for this very action.

I will not speak to anyone from the United States over the
telephone since it may be taped by the Americans.

If you wish to corespond with me you can write to the below
address, but I really don’t see what we could take about if you
want to send me money, that I can use, but I do not expect to
be able to send it back.

Lee[A13-539]

Oswald’s statement that he had been told that he could remain in Russia was not true. According to his diary, he was not told until later that he could remain even temporarily in Russia,[A13-540] and only in January was he told that he could remain indefinitely.[A13-541] The Embassy tried to deliver a typed copy of a telegram from his brother John on November 9; Oswald refused to answer the knock on his door, and the message was then sent to him by registered mail.[A13-542]

Toward the end of this waiting period, probably on November 13, Aline Mosby succeeded in interviewing Oswald.[A13-543] A reporter for United Press International, she had called him on the telephone and was told to come right over, Oswald’s explanation being that he thought she might “understand and be friendly” because she was a woman.[A13-544] She was the first person who was not a Soviet citizen to whom he granted an interview since his meeting with Snyder at the Embassy on October 31. Miss Mosby found him polite but stiff; she said that he seemed full of confidence, often showing a “small smile, more like a smirk,” and that he talked almost “non-stop.” Oswald said to her that he had been told that he could remain in the Soviet Union and that job possibilities were being explored; they thought it probably would be best, he said, to continue his education. He admitted that his Russian was bad but was confident that it would improve rapidly. He based his dislike for the United States on his observations of racial prejudice and the contrast between “the luxuries of Park Avenue and workers’ lives on the East Side,” and mentioned his mother’s poverty; he said that if he had remained in the United States he too would have become either a capitalist or a worker. “One way or another,” he said, “I’d lose in the United States. In my own mind, even if I’d be exploiting other workers. That’s why I chose Marxist ideology.”

Oswald told his interviewer that he had been interested in Communist theory since he was 15, when “an old lady” in New York handed him “a pamphlet about saving the Rosenbergs.” But when Mosby asked if he were a member of the Communist Party he said that he had never met a Communist and that he “might have seen” one only once, when he saw that “old lady.” He told her that while he was in the Marine Corps he had seen American imperialism in action, and had saved $1,500 in secret preparation for his defection to Russia. His only apparent regrets concerned his family: his mother, whom he had not told of his plans, and his brother, who might lose his job as a result of the publicity.[A13-545]

The interview lasted for about 2 hours. According to Oswald’s own account, he exacted a promise from Miss Mosby that she would show him the story before publication but she broke the promise; he found the published story to contain distortions of his words.[A13-546] Miss Mosby’s notes indicate that he called her to complain of the distortions, saying in particular that his family had not been “poverty-stricken” and that his defection was not prompted by personal hardship but that was “a matter only of ideology.”[A13-547]

According to the diary, Oswald was told in mid-November that he could remain temporarily in Russia “until some solution was found with what to do” with him.[A13-548] Armed with this “comforting news,”[A13-549] he granted a second interview, again to a woman, on November 16.[A13-550] Miss Priscilla Johnson of the North American Newspaper Alliance knocked on the door of his room at the Metropole, and Oswald agreed to come to her room at the hotel that evening. This interview lasted about 5 hours, from 9 p.m. until about 2 in the morning. During the interview he frequently mentioned the fact that he would be able to remain in Russia, which gave him great pleasure, but he also showed disappointment about the difficulties standing in the way of his request for Soviet citizenship. He repeated most of the information he had given Aline Mosby and again denied having been a member of the Communist Party or even ever having seen a Communist in the United States. When Miss Johnson asked him to specify some of the socialist writers whose works he had read during the past 5 years, he could name only Marx and Engels; the only title he could recall was “Das Kapital.” They talked for a long while about Communist economic theory, which Miss Johnson thought was “his language”; she became convinced that his knowledge of the subject was very superficial.[A13-551] He commented that the Russians treated his defection as a “legal formality,” neither encouraging nor discouraging it.[A13-552] When she suggested that if he really wished to renounce his American citizenship he could do so by returning to the Embassy, he said that he would “never set foot in the Embassy again,” since he was sure that he would be given the “same run-around” as before. He seemed to Miss Johnson to be avoiding effective renunciation, consciously or unconsciously, in order to preserve his right to reenter the United States.[A13-553]

For the rest of the year, Oswald seldom left his hotel room where he had arranged to take his meals, except perhaps for a few trips to museums. He spent most of his time studying Russian, “8 hours a day” his diary records. The routine was broken only by another interview at the passport office; occasional visits from Rima Shirokova; lessons in Russian from her and other Intourist guides; and a New Year’s visit from Roza Agafonova, who gave him a small “Boratin” clown as a New Year’s present.[A13-554] He replied to a letter from Robert in a letter quoted at length in chapter VII of this report, which contains his most bitter statements against the United States.[A13-555] Robert received a third letter on December 17, in which Oswald said that he would not write again and did not wish Robert to write to him. The letter concluded:

I am starting a new life and I do not wish to have anything to
do with the old life.

I hope you and your family will always be in good health.

Lee[A13-556]

His mother mailed him a personal check for $20 dated December 18. It was returned to her on January 5 with the notation that he could not “use this check, of course”; he asked her to send him $20 in cash and added that he had little money and needed “the rest,” presumably a reference to the $100 he had given her in September. Mrs. Oswald later sent him a money order for about $25.[A13-557]

On January 4, Oswald was summoned to the Soviet Passport Office and given Identity Document for Stateless Persons No. 311479.[A13-558] He was told that he was being sent to Minsk,[A13-559] an industrial city located about 450 miles southwest of Moscow and with a population in 1959 of about 510,000.[A13-560] His disappointment that he had not been granted Soviet citizenship was balanced by relief that the uncertainty was ended; he told Rima Shirokova that he was happy.[A13-561] On the following day, he went to a Government agency which the Russians call the “Red Cross”; it gave him 5,000 rubles (about 500 new rubles, or $500 at the official exchange rate).[A13-562] He used 2,200 rubles to pay his hotel bill and 150 rubles to purchase a railroad ticket to Minsk.[A13-563]

Oswald arrived in Minsk on January 7. He was met at the station by two “Red Cross” workers who took him to the Hotel Minsk. Two Intourist employees, both of whom spoke excellent English, were waiting for him.[A13-564] One of them, a young woman named Roza Kuznetsova, became his close friend and attended his 21st birthday party in October 1960.[A13-565] (See Commission Exhibit No. 2609, p. 271.) On the following day, Oswald met the “Mayor,” who welcomed him to Minsk, promised him a rent-free apartment, and warned him against “uncultured persons” who sometimes insulted foreigners.[A13-566]

Oswald reported for work at the Belorussian Radio and Television Factory on January 13.[A13-567] Two days earlier he had visited the factory and met Alexander Ziger, a Polish Jew who had emigrated to Argentina in 1938 and went to Russia in 1955. Ziger was a department head at the factory; he spoke English, and he and his family became good friends of Oswald and corresponded with him after his return to the United States.[A13-568] The factory, a major producer of electronic parts and systems, employed about 5,000 persons.[A13-569] Oswald’s union card described him as a “metal worker”;[A13-570] Marina testified that he fashioned parts on a lathe.[A13-571] As Oswald later described it, the shop in which he worked, called the “experimental shop,”[A13-572] employed 58 workers and 5 foremen. It was located in the middle part of the factory area in a 2-story building made of red brick. The workday began at 8 o’clock sharp. Work was assigned according to “pay levels,” which were numbered from one to five plus a top “master” level. A worker could ask to be tested for a higher level at any time.[A13-573]

Oswald had hoped to continue his education in Russia, and was disappointed by his assignment to a factory.[A13-574] His salary varied from 700 to perhaps as high as 900 rubles per month ($70-$90).[A13-575] Although high compared with the salaries of certain professional groups in Russia, which in some areas have not grown proportionately with the wages of factory workers,[A13-576] his salary was normal for his type of work.[A13-577] It was supplemented, however, by 700 rubles per month, which he received from the “Red Cross,” and, according to Oswald, his total income was about equal to that of the director of the factory.[A13-578] In August he applied for membership in the union;[A13-579] he became a dues-paying member in September.[A13-580]

Undoubtedly more noteworthy to most Russians than his extra income was the attractive apartment which Oswald was given in March 1959. It was a small flat with a balcony overlooking the river,[A13-581] for which he paid only 60 rubles a month.[A13-582] (See Commission Exhibit No. 2606, p. 271.) Oswald describes it in his diary as “a Russian dream.”[A13-583] Had Oswald been a Russian worker, he would probably have had to wait for several years for a comparable apartment, and would have been given one even then only if he had a family.[A13-584] The “Red Cross” subsidy and the apartment were typical of the favorable treatment which the Soviet Union has given defectors.[A13-585]

Oswald’s diary records that he enjoyed his first months in Minsk. His work at the factory was easy and his coworkers were friendly and curious about life in the United States; he declined an invitation to speak at a mass meeting. He took Roza Kuznetsova, his interpreter and language teacher,[A13-586] to the theater, a movie, or an opera almost every night, until he moved into his apartment and temporarily lost contact with her. He wrote in his diary, “I’m living big and am very satisfied.”[A13-587] In March or April, he met Pavel Golovachev, a co-worker at the factory, whom Oswald described as intelligent and friendly and an excellent radio technician. (See Commission Exhibit No. 2609, p. 271.) Oswald helped Golovachev with English.[A13-588] They became friends,[A13-589] and corresponded after Oswald returned to the United States until at least as late as September 1963.[A13-590]

The spring and summer passed easily and uneventfully. There were picnics and drives in the country, which Oswald described as “green beauty.”[A13-591] On June 18, he obtained a hunting license and soon afterward purchased a 16-gage single-barrel shotgun. His hunting license identifies him as “Aleksy Harvey Oswald.” (He was called “Alec” by his Russian friends, because “Lee” sounded foreign to them and was difficult for them to pronounce.)[A13-592] He joined a local chapter of the Belorussian Society of Hunters and Fishermen, a hunting club sponsored by his factory, and hunted for small game in the farm regions around Minsk about half a dozen times in the summer and fall. The hunters spent the night in small villages and often left their bag with the villagers; Oswald described the peasant life which he saw as crude and poor.[A13-593] Sometime in June, he met Ella German, a worker at the factory, of whom he later said he “perhaps fell in love with her the first minute” he saw her.[A13-594] (See Commission Exhibit No. 2609, p. 271.)

At the same time, however, the first signs of disillusionment with his Russian life appeared. He noted in his diary that he felt “uneasy inside” after a friend took him aside at a party and advised him to return to the United States.[A13-595] Another entry compared life in Minsk with military life:

I have become habituatated to a small cafe which is where I
dine in the evening. The food is generaly poor and always
eactly the same, menue in any cafe, at any point in the city.
The food is cheap and I don’t really care about quiality after
three years in the U.S.M.C.[A13-596]

In an entry for August-September, he wrote that he was becoming “increasingly concious of just what sort of a sociaty” he lived in.[A13-597]

He spent New Year’s Day at the home of Ella German and her family. They ate and drank in a friendly atmosphere, and he was “drunk and happy” when he returned home. During the walk back to his apartment he decided to ask Ella to marry him. On the following night, after he had brought her home from the movies, he proposed on her doorstep. She rejected him, saying that she did not love him and that she was afraid to marry an American. She said that the Polish intervention in the 1920’s had led to the arrest of all people in the Soviet Union of Polish origin and she feared that something similar might happen to Americans some day. Oswald was “too stunned to think,” and concluded that she had gone out with him only because she was envied by the other girls for having an American as an escort.[A13-598] But in one of the entries in the diary he appears to have attributed her failure to love him to “a state of fear which was always in the Soviet Union.”[A13-599] His affection for Ella German apparently continued for some time;[A13-600] he had his last formal date with her in February and remained on friendly terms with her as long as he was in Russia.[A13-601]

After he returned to the United States, Oswald often commented on Russian life. He discussed the Soviet systems of public education[A13-602] and medical care.[A13-603] He observed to one acquaintance that everyone in Russia was trained to do something,[A13-604] and discussed with another the system of regular wage and salary increases.[A13-605] His most frequent criticisms concerned the contrast between the lives of ordinary workers and the lives of Communist Party members. He told an acquaintance in Dallas that the working class in the Soviet Union made just about enough to buy clothing and food and that only party members could afford luxuries.[A13-606] On another occasion, he remarked that if he had had as much money as some of the “managers,” he could have visited the Black Sea resorts.[A13-607] He complained about the lack of freedom in Russia;[A13-608] the lack of opportunity to travel;[A13-609] inadequate housing;[A13-610] and the chronic scarcity of food products.[A13-611] To one acquaintance, he observed that the party members were all “opportunists,” who “shouted the loudest and made the most noise,” but who were interested only in their own welfare.[A13-612]

He expressed similar views in a manuscript which he worked on in Russia[A13-613] and probably intended to publish; soon after he returned to the United States, he hired a stenographer to prepare a typed draft from his notes.[A13-614] Oswald described the manuscript, which amounted to 50 typed pages, as “a look into the lives of work-a-day average Russians.”[A13-615]

The manuscript describes the factory in which Oswald worked and suggests that political considerations of which Oswald disapproved dominated its operation. He attributed the lack of unemployment to the shortage of labor-saving machinery and the heavy load of bureaucracy, which kept “tons of paper work” flowing in and out of the factory and required a high foreman-worker ratio.[A13-616] In addition, he wrote, there was “a small army of examiners, committees, and supply checkers and the quality-control board.”[A13-617]

He described life in Russia, including life at the factory, as centered around the “Kollective.” The head of the Kollective in his shop, Comrade Lebizen, saw to it that everyone maintained shop discipline, attended party meetings, and received all the new propaganda as it came out. He hung the walls of the shop with signs and slogans of the Communist Party. Meetings of the Kollective were “so numerous as to be staggering.” In a single month, there were scheduled one meeting of the professional union, four political information meetings, two young Communist meetings, one meeting of the production committee to discuss ways of improving work, two Communist Party meetings, four meetings of the “School of Communist Labor,” and one sports meeting. All but one of them were compulsory for Communist Party members and all but three were compulsory for everyone.[A13-618] (Marina Oswald testified that her husband did not attend the courses in Marxism and Leninism given in the factory for party members and those who wished to become party members.)[A13-619] They were scheduled so as not to interfere with work, and lasted anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours. Oswald said that no one liked the meetings, which were accepted “philosophically”; at the political meetings especially, everyone paid strict attention, and party members were posted in the audience to watch for the slightest sign that anyone’s attention might relax, even for a moment.[A13-620]

Oswald wrote that the “spontaneous” demonstrations on Soviet holidays or for distinguished visitors were almost as well organized as the Kollectivist meetings at the factory.[A13-621] He noted that elections were supervised to ensure that everyone voted, and that they voted for the candidates of the Communist Party. The manuscript touches on other aspects of Soviet life--as the housing shortage and the corruption which it evoked, the “rest-homes” where workers had their vacations, television and the omni-present radio, and Russian reading habits.[A13-622] This writing also may include only what Oswald thought might be acceptable.

On January 4, 1961, I year after he had been issued his “stateless” residence permit, Oswald was summoned to the passport office in Minsk and asked if he still wanted to become a Soviet citizen. He replied that he did not, but asked that his residence permit be extended for another year.[A13-623] The entry in his diary for January 4-31 reads: “I am stating to reconsider my disire about staying. The work is drab. The money I get has nowhere to be spent. No nightclubs or bowling allys, no places of recreation acept the trade union dances. I have had enough.”[A13-624]

The American Embassy in Moscow had not heard from Oswald after it received his letter of November 3, 1959.[A13-625] On February 13, 1961, it received an undated letter from him which had been mailed in Minsk about a week earlier. He asked for the return of his passport and stated that he wanted to return to the United States if he could “come to some agreement [with the American Government] concerning the dropping of any legal proceedings” against him. He noted that he had not become a Soviet citizen and was living in Russia with “nonpermanent type papers for a foreigner,” and said that he did not appear personally because he could not leave Minsk without permission. The letter concluded: “I hope that in recalling the responsibility I have to America that you remember yours in doing everything you can to help me, since I am an American citizen.”[A13-626] In this letter, Oswald referred to a previous letter which he said had gone unanswered; there is evidence that such a letter was never sent.[A13-627]

The Second Secretary, Richard Snyder, answered on February 28 that Oswald would have to appear at the Embassy personally to discuss his return to the United States.[A13-628] In the meantime, Oswald’s mother, who in January had inquired at the Department of State about his whereabouts,[A13-629] had been notified of his letter.[A13-630] A second letter from Oswald, posted on March 5, reached the Embassy on March 20; it reiterated that he was unable to leave Minsk without permission and asked that “preliminary inquiries * * * be put in the form of a questionnaire” and sent to him.[A13-631] His diary entry for this period records his “state of expectation about going back to the U.S.,” and adds that a friend had approved his plans but warned him not to discuss them with others.[A13-632] (The Soviet authorities had undoubtedly intercepted and read the correspondence between Oswald and the Embassy and knew of his plans.[A13-633] Soon after the correspondence began, his monthly payments from the “Red Cross” were cut off.)[A13-634] Having informed Washington,[A13-635] the Embassy wrote to Oswald on March 24, stating again that he would have to come to Moscow.[A13-636] Later, the Department of State decided that Oswald’s passport should be returned to him only if he appeared at the Embassy for it and the Embassy was satisfied, after exploring the matter with him, that he had not renounced his citizenship.[A13-637]

Sometime in the second week of March, Miss Katherine Mallory, who was on tour in Minsk with the University of Michigan symphonic band, found herself surrounded by curious Russian citizens. A young man who identified himself as a Texan and former marine stepped out of the crowd and asked if she needed an interpreter; he interpreted for her for the next 15 or 20 minutes. Later he told her that he despised the United States and hoped to stay in Minsk for the rest of his life. Miss Mallory is unable to swear that her interpreter was Oswald, but is personally convinced that it was he.[A13-638]

A few days later, probably on March 17, Oswald attended a trade union dance with a friend, Erik Titovyets, at the Palace of Culture for Professional Workers in Minsk.[A13-639] The dance followed a lecture by a Russian woman who had recently returned from a trip to the United States.[A13-640] Marina Nikolayevna Prusakova arrived too late to hear the lecture[A13-641] but was at the dance. Oswald noticed her and asked Yuriy Merezhinskiy, the son of the lecturer and a friend of both Oswald and Marina, to introduce him to her. Oswald asked her to dance. According to the diary, they liked each other immediately and he obtained her telephone number before she left.[A13-642] Marina testified that she told Oswald that she might see him at another dance, but did not give him her telephone number.[A13-643] Oswald was smitten.[A13-644]

Marina Prusakova was 19 years old when she met Oswald. (See Commission Exhibit No. 1395, p. 270.) She was born on July 17, 1941, at Severodvinsk (formerly Molotovsk), Arkhangel Oblast’, Russia.[A13-645] A few years later, her mother, Klavdiya Vasilievna Prusakova, married Aleksandr Ivanovich Medvedev, who became the only father Marina knew.[A13-646] While she was still a young girl, Marina went to Arkhangel’sk, Arkhangel Oblast’, to live with her maternal grandparents, Tatyana Yakovlevna Prusakova and Vasiliy Prusakov. Her grandfather died when Marina was about 4 years old; she continued to live with her grandmother for some time.[A13-647] When she was not more than 7, she moved to Zguritva, Moldavian SSR (formerly called Bessarabia) to live with her mother and stepfather, who was an electrical worker.[A13-648] In 1952, the family moved to Leningrad,[A13-649] where her stepfather obtained a job in a power station.[A13-650] Marina testified that neither he nor her mother was a member of the Communist Party.[A13-651]

In Leningrad, Marina attended the Three Hundred and Seventy-Fourth Women’s School. After she had completed the seventh grade at the school in 1955,[A13-652] she entered the Pharmacy Teknikum for special training, which she had requested on the ground that her mother was ill and Marina might need to have a specialty in order to support herself. While she was at the Teknikum, she joined the Trade Union for Medical Workers[A13-653] and, in her last year there, worked part time in the Central Pharmacy in Leningrad. She graduated from the Teknikum with a diploma in pharmacy in June 1959.

Marina’s mother had died in 1957, during Marina’s second year at the Teknikum; she continued to live with her stepfather, but had little contact with him. She testified that she did not get along with her stepfather, whom she displeased by her fresh conduct; she said that she was not easily disciplined[A13-654] and was a source of concern to him.[A13-655] Because of the friction between them, Marina regarded her childhood as an unhappy one.

After her graduation, Marina was assigned to a job preparing and packing orders in a pharmaceutical warehouse in Leningrad; as a new employee she had the right to leave this job within 3 days after the assignment,[A13-656] and she did so after the first day. She took no job for the next 2 months, at the end of which she went to live in Minsk with an aunt and uncle, the Prusakovs, who had no children. She had known them since she was a child and there was a mutual affection between her and them.[A13-657] Her uncle, a member of the Communist Party,[A13-658] was assigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and headed the local bureau concerned with lumber. The Prusakovs had one of the best apartments in a building reserved for MVD employees.[A13-659]